In 2009, Mayor Newsom appointed his former political chief of staff and former union lawyer Phil Ginsburg to be General Manager of the Recreation & Parks Department. Ginsburg had the loyalty and callousness to follow direction. He could dogmatically push the agenda of City Fields Foundation's projects -- and he had the acting chops to play the victim when needed -- but a salesmen with well heeled connections was also needed.

Mayor Newsom swearing in Buell

So, Newsom then brought in real estate developer, (and self described "auctioneer"), Mark Buell as President of the Recreation & Park Commission. Buell is a major donor and fund-raiser for Democratic Party political candidates -- including for Newsom. Buell had also served on boards with the Fisher brothers. According to the San Francisco Chronicle -- when Buell took office he was challenged with, “putting artificial turf at the Beach Chalet soccer fields” -- in Golden Gate Park. Buell was soon heard to be proclaiming, “The state of the art is synthetic turf in all soccer fields and all parks in the country.”

Fisher, Ginsburg, & Buell at CFF event

Newsom now had two loyal players signed on with roles defined -- a top priority seeming to be to deflect the public’s scrutiny about the controversies associated with the CFF styrene butadiene (SBR) projects -- and to wear out and discourage any opposition.A CFF supporter characterized their function as being “firewalls”. Along with Buell --Ginsburg would often refer to himself as “the piñata”. Additionally, Ginsburg and Buell had direct influence over a host of government employees and dependent parks groups which turned out to be useful as another layer of "firewall" protection.

Citizens gather to protect park.

As it turned out very little protection was necessary. Dissent in San Francisco regarding SBR synthetic turf amounted to little more than disorganized ragtag collections of inexperienced individual citizens and sporadic NIMBY groups. For most medical professionals, SBR toxicity was not yet on their radar. Opposition was easily contained. To silence a health care advocate's presentation at his Commission, Buell could, (and did), simply interrupt a speaker with the swing of his gavel or allow his Commission secretary to turn off the microphone. Ginsburg would simply ignore the speaker.

CFF “Team” members Hannan and Mauer

Hirsch distanced her clients -- the Fisher brother's -- and herself from the controversy by handing off the lion’s share of CFF’s mounting public relations challenges and neighborhood outreach to fellow “Team” members Mauer and Hannan. Both had experience and training in persuasive public speaking. Hannan, who claims expertise in media relations, strategic communications, and message development, was given the title of CFF’s director of communications.

City Fields Foundation web site

CFF launched the City Fields Foundation's web site, along with other social media presences on Twitter and Facebook. Using these tools CFF cultivated particularly close social media ties with various sports leagues with whom they began to post motivating and strategic internet postings.

Additionally, CFF director Hirsch was placed on the Board of Directors of the newly formed “The Bay Citizen” -- a Bay Area news source that was substantially funded by the Fisher Family. These connections gave Hirsch and CFF greater access to some of the Bay Area’s most influential media.